The purpose of media in any democratic country is to provide information with truth and neutral facts and analysis to the people without any favouritism and help them understand the facts and build their opinion to participate in democracy. If Media will go overboard with biased analysis then isn’t it an imperative question to analyse??

“He is a CM, graduated from IIT, lives in his own house, drives his own car, wears chappal (sandal) and no security at all, Who is he??? If you wrongly answer I will give you next clue.”

In
Focus

The above question was an SMS I received from one of my close relatives few days ago. As these days I watch lot of news and read lot about the current affairs, so it was not difficult for me to answer. It is Manohar Parikar the CM of Goa.

However when I sent the same SMS to some of my friends especially woman friends who are either busy working ladies or home makers, strangely they couldn’t rightly answer. As per them they said that they know mostly about the austerity and simplicity of Arvind Kejriwal and AAP which is highly discussed in the media.

Not only my women friends but in my entire circle both physical and social networking sites suddenly it became topic of discussion. We all unanimously expressed surprise at the strange behaviour of media in giving unreasonable recognition and eulogize to these new guys which they (media) never provided to any other of equivalent genus.

What I mean to say is, in general people are very neutral in accessing or analysing the facts. What matters is the kind of information they are provided with, which forms a large extent to build their opinion which eventually make them predisposed. So my point is very clear. I feel somewhat media is influenced or practice favouritism. In fact the fundamental rule of providing correct information sometime is also getting violated.

Given a microscopic observation in the above issue of “austerity and abolishing VIP culture” which the Aam Aadmi Party made an agenda of their manifesto would reveal some pungent truths.

Isn’t it a fact that since few days the camera was only focused on Arvind Kejriwal’s life style where as number of politicians of same genre were never given that exposure?

I was feeling like I have been forced to believe that only these people who are appearing on my TV screens or in newspapers are the only people who observe austerity. I honestly mean to say is, it was really out of proportion.

Because there are so many other people who are not at all part of such highlights. For Example, I have already stated above about CM of Goa Manohar Parikar. Isn’t it a fact that he was never highlighted in the national media?

Mamata Banerjee, the CM of West Bengal who lives in her own house, travels in own car, no security and even travels long distances in Train if urgency is not a factor. The only luxury she takes is an AC ticket in train. Her assets also as per her last declaration are not more than 5 to 7 lacs. Has she ever been projected in that way by any media? Or her austerity doesn’t matter at all as she is a very poor advertiser of it (austerity)?

Raman Singh the three time CM of Chhattisgarh by not using red beacon mounted car despises 'VIP culture'. I came to know about it only in our discussions on social networking sites. Isn’t it strange that even this time when he became CM none of any media focused on his life style?

Manik Sarkar the longest serving Chief Minister of Tripura is leading a clean and austere life at a time when corruption has become almost the order of the day among politicians. He has been tagged of being the “poorest chief minister in India” which is a truth evident from his assets declaration.On what ground his austerity doesn’t carry merit to be discussed in National Media? Can any media answer it?

In fact in Delhi also, Madan Lal Khurana and Sahib Singh Verma, ex-CM Delhi also stayed in small accommodation. Have they ever been highlighted?

There might be many in past as well who lived the life of simplicity but never made a small appearance in National Media on the grounds of austerity. The common thing in all the above cases may be either these people never thought of making it a populist issue for their political gain or may be they are all poor in using media.

But what about media? Is there any compulsion not to report such facts to public?

The point is very clear. Media has given hype to this issue by only referring AAP and Arvind Kejriwal which is not acceptable as true and correct information is the right of people. Public cannot be and should not be left disillusioned.

In this way it will not even help them or any one as now day’s people sooner or later can see beyond the not so transparent facts. The only damage will be, even truth will suffer for some time when it will come out of such biased sources, which is not desirable at all.

Accountability is a factor which is most needed at this point of our national life. And it is everybody’s basic requirement to abide by the maximum accountability.

And austerity or simplicity should not be tagged to those only who can brilliantly harness media power. In fact it should be the basic effort of media to reach out to the truth and produce neutral facts and analysis before the public. I think this is the basic purpose of media to “report truth with utmost neutrality”….isn’t it?

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